"It helped me keep my sanity," said Beth Pennington.

Pennington's son, David, stayed in contact with her during his second tour of duty in Iraq through the website myspace-dot-com.

"He would have to wait in line for two hours to use the computer and he only had thirty minutes. And he couldn't keep in touch through with everyone through email so he said if you want to get in touch with me use myspace," Pennington said.

Pennington started a myspace page to organize donations for care packages for troops.

Her son is out of Iraq now and training at Camp Lejune in North Carolina.
But she still uses the site to stay in touch, so she was shocked when she learned the Pentagon banned soldiers from using the military's computer system to socialize.

"I just thought they are going to be upset. And their mothers and wives and girlfriends are going to be really upset," Pennington said.

Military officials say it became difficult to divide security and privacy issues. And they can not take chances of leaks getting out through soldiers blogs or video sharing.

"He said, 'It's okay mom, it's for everyone's safety.'"

The soldiers were told of the shutdown in February, but the actual ban just went into effect. For families like Pennington's, the change will take some getting used to.

"We'll just have to find some other way to communicate," she said.

For more on Pennington's organization to help support troops and send care packages go to:

http://militarymissionsonline.com/